This confirmed the proof of the important fact gained the preceding year,—namely—that ventilation and the means of dividing the treasures of the Bees, by taking off a glass or a box of honey,—or, if necessary, by taking off both a glass and a box, set aside the necessity for swarming. On all occasions, under this practice, a proper temperature may be supported in a colony; and in all critical points, by a just observation of the state of the thermometer, Bees may be relieved and assisted, and all the mischiefs attending the old mode of management may be guarded against and prevented. For when adequately relieved and properly assisted, they proceed to rid the colony of all embryo Queens, which would only become so many supernumeraries in a hive where the reigning Queen is fertile, and the necessity for emigration is superseded. But, unless Bees could be made to understand that accommodation will be extended to them at the proper time, they, guided by their sense of their situation—not by ours—naturally and wisely provide their own means of relieving themselves; and in so doing frequently bring forth what afterwards become supernumerary Queens, which are invariably destroyed and cast out of the colony, as soon as the Bees are sensible that they have no occasion for them. And, whenever a royal nymph or a virgin Queen is thus cast out, swarming need not be apprehended.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
BEE-FEEDING.
Neglected generally, as is the management of Bees by their cottage possessors, there is no part of it less attended to, nor more slovenly performed, when performed at all, than that of feeding. The cottager commonly takes up, as he terms it, his best hives for the sake of the treasures they contain, or are supposed to contain. This is destroying Bees because they are rich! He also takes up the lightest and poorest—of course the late swarms—and those that are the least likely to live through the winter; because if he get from one of these but two or three pounds of honey, though he seldom gets so much, and a few ounces of wax, he thinks that that is all clear gain: and, if he get neither honey nor wax, he, at any rate, gets rid of the expense and trouble of feeding his good-for-nothing swarms, which, in his opinion, however fed, would never come to any good. A pennyworth of brimstone will do the job at once, and is more easily paid for than a pound of sugar, and after that another, and perhaps another. Such is the reasoning, and calculation, and cruel practice of the generality of cottage Bee-keepers! Such is the destruction annually dealt out to hundreds of poor swarms, and thousands and millions of poor Bees!! I do from my heart pity and deplore the untimely fate of these suffocated, innocent, valuable insects. To destroy Bees because they are rich is a barbarous practice, and ought by all means to be discountenanced and discontinued;—to destroy Bees because they are poor and may need support, is cruel—-is inhuman—is shocking, however little may be thought of it by those who still adhere to this practice. Even with the common straw-hives, this terrible havoc among poor stocks and late swarms might be prevented, if they, who happen to have them, would so far improve themselves in the practical management of an apiary, as to be able to fumigate, and to take such Bees out of the hives containing them, and to join them to their richer stock-hives, in the latter end of August, or any time in September. This is by far the best plan that can be adopted with poor hives; and there really is no difficulty in the operation. This strengthens the population of rich stocks, and causes them to swarm early in the ensuing spring, it preserves the Bees, which is of itself, independently of the advantages accruing from it afterwards, a consideration that never should be lost sight of,—it leaves the contents of the fumigated hive, as absolutely in the possession of the Bee-owner, as if the Bees had been suffocated and destroyed,—and in most cases it entirely does away with the necessity of feeding. I confess I should rejoice greatly, and flatter myself that every friend of humanity would rejoice with me, to see this mode of disposing of weak hives universally adopted; because, it may be presumed, that the next step in the way of improvement would be to take away the superabundant treasure of the Bees and still preserve them.
Notwithstanding, under certain circumstances it will always be necessary, and judicious in Bee-masters, to have recourse to feeding. If, for instance, after an early swarm is put into a hive, or into a box, two or three or more cold, ungenial days should follow, and more particularly if those days should happen to be rainy also, by feeding such a swarm you will assist your impoverished labourers, not only with necessary food, but with materials and treasure, which, unfortunately for them, they cannot at such an unfavourable juncture get abroad to collect elsewhere.
Different apiarians have adopted and recommended different ways of feeding Bees, none of which, in my opinion, possess any great merit; in order, therefore, to improve this part of Bee-management, my endeavours have been directed to the contrivance and construction of a feeding department; which is attached to my collateral-hives in so convenient a manner, that I can feed my Bees, at any time when feeding is required—in spring, in autumn, or in winter, without disturbing the position of the hive, and without changing its interior temperature; which temperature cannot be kept equable and comfortable, where a hive is frequently lifted up from its stand, and its interior is suddenly exposed to the action of perhaps an extremely cold atmosphere. Besides, a hive cannot be lifted up without breaking the propolis by which it has been cemented all round and made fast to its stool. In sharp, cold weather, disruption of the hive from its stool is a serious mischief done to the Bees; because, however carefully it maybe set down again, there will have been made many vents and crevices between the edge of the hive and the stool, which will occasion various currents of air, cold, frosty, or other—proper or improper—to be continually passing through the lower part of the hive. And should Bees be tempted by food, or urged by hunger, to descend into these currents in sharp, frosty weather, but few of them will get away alive; the keen air acting upon them whilst feeding, paralyzes and kills them. I am an advocate for keeping Bees cool in winter—yes, cool and still also: let them not be disturbed nor disunited,—let them not be forced nor tempted to (if I may so say) uncluster themselves. I have no objection to a current of air passing through the lower part of a hive in winter, provided the Bees be not disturbed—be not exposed singly to its nipping influence; but I strongly object to the feeding of Bees in such currents, because, in that case, feeding is prejudicial to them. The cottager seldom protects his hives in winter with any other covering than that which a pot, called a pancheon, whelmed over each hive, forms; capped with this unsightly piece of earthenware, his hives are exposed to all weathers; consequently the less he disturbs them the better. He therefore should give his weak stocks a copious feeding, in September at the latest,—not molest them during the severity of winter,—but in the spring, as soon as the Bees begin to make their appearance at the mouth of his hives, introduce his wooden trough furnished with a little Bee-sirup, and then close up the entrance,—withdraw the trough in the morning, and return it replenished every evening, as long as feeding is necessary. Tearing off a hive at Christmas, and scattering a few ounces of brown sugar upon the stand, and then setting down the hive again, deserves not the name of feeding; though it is all the bounty that is bestowed on some stocks; and is even more than others are treated with. It need not then be wondered at that so many stocks of Bees perish in the winter, and in the spring of every year. By judicious feeding, at proper seasons, almost any stock of Bees may be preserved: by injudicious feeding, at an improper season, even good stocks—stocks that would survive, if not fed at all, nor molested, during the depth and severity of winter, may be seriously injured—may be totally destroyed. The peasant Bee-keeper, however, does not often subject himself to the charge complimental of being accessary to the death of his Bees through mistaken kindness.
The sum and substance of my directions, as respects Bee-feeding, are these:—
1. In spring feed sparingly.